The history of philosophy, in eight parts by Thomas Stanley.

The Sonnet.

I.

LOve, (whose hand guides my Hearts strict Reins Nor, though he govern it, disdains To feed the fire with pious care Which first himself enkindled there) Commands my backward Soul to tell What Flames within her Bosom dwell; Fear would perswade her to decline The charge of such a high design; But all her weak reluctance fails, 'Gainst greater Force no Force avails. Love to advance her flight will lend Those wings by which he did descend Into my Heart, where he to rest For ever, long since built his Nest: I what from thence he dictates write, And draw him thus by his own Light.

II.

LOve, flowing from the sacred spring Of uncreated Good, I sing: When born; how Heaven he moves; the soul Informs; and doth the World controwl; How closely lurking in the heart, With his sharp weapons subtle art From heavy earth he Man unites, Enforcing him to reach the skies. How kindled, how he flames, how burns; By what laws guided now he turns To Heaven, now to the Earth descends, Now rests 'twixt both, to neither bends. Apollo, Thee I invocate, Bowing beneath so great a weight. Love, guide me through this dark design, And imp my shorter wings with thine.

III.

WHen from true Heav'n the sacred Sun Into th' Angelick Mind did run, And with enliv'ned Leaves adorn, Bestowing form on his first-born; Enflamed by innate Desires, She to her chiefest good aspires; By which reversion her rich Brest With various Figures is imprest; And by this love exalted, turns Into the Sun for whom she burns. This flame, rais'd by the Light that shin'd From Heav'n into th' Angelick Mind, Is eldest Loves religious Ray, By Wealth and Want begot that Day, When Heav'n brought forth the Queen, whose Hand The Cyprian Scepter doth Command.

IV.

THis born in amorous Cypris arms, The Sun of her bright Beauty warms. From this our first desire accrues, Which in new fetters caught, pursues The honourable path that guides Where our eternall good resides. By this the fire, through whose fair beams Life from above to Mankind streams, Is kindled in our hearts, which glow Dying, yet dying greater grow; By this th' immortal Fountain flows, Which all Heaven forms below, bestows; By this descends that shower of light Which upwards doth our minds invite; By this th' Eternall Sun inspires And souls with sacred lustre fires.

V.

AS God doth to the Mind dispence Its Being, Life, Intelligence, So doth the Mind the soul acquaint How't understand, to move, to paint; She thus prepar'd, the Sun that shines In the Eternal Breast designs, And here what she includes diffuses, Exciting every thing that uses

Motion and sense (beneath her state) To live, to know, to operate. Inferiour Venus hence took Birth; Who shines in heav'n, but lives on earth, And o're the world her shadow spreads: The elder in the Suns Glass reads Her Face, through the confused skreen Of a dark shade obscurely seen; She Lustre from the Sun receives, And to the Other Lustre gives; Celestiall Love on this depends, The younger, vulgar Love attends.

VI.

FOrm'd by th' eternal Look of God, From the Suns most sublime abode, The Soul descends into Mans Heart, Imprinting there with wondrous Art What worth she borowed of her star, And brought in her Celestiall Carre; As well as humane Matter yields, She thus her curious Mansion builds; Yet all those fames from the divine Impression differently decline: The Sun, who's figu'rd here, his Beams Into anothers Bosom streams; In whose agreeing soul he staies, And guilds it with its virtuous Raies, The heart in which Affection's bred, Is thus by pleasing Errour fed.

VII.

THe heart where pleasing Errour raigns, This object as her Child maintains, By the fair light that in her shines (A rare Celestiall Gift,) refines; And by degrees at last doth bring To her first splendours sacred spring, From this divine Look, one Sun passes Through three refulgent Burning-glasses, Kindling all Beauty, which the Spirit, The Body, and the Mind inherit. These rich spoiles, by th' eye first caught, Are to the Souls next Handmaid brought, Who there resides: She to the brest Sends them; reform'd, but not exprest: The heart, from Matter Beauty takes,

Of many one Conception makes; And what were meant by Natures Laws, Distinct, She in one Picture draws▪

VIII.

THe heart by Love allur'd to see Within her self her Progeny; This, like the Suns reflecting Rayes Upon the Waters face, survaies; Yet some divine, though clouded light Seems here to twinckle, and invite The pious Soul, a Beauty more Sublime, and perfect to adore. Who sees no longer his dim shade Upon the earths vast Globe display'd, But certain Lustre, of the true Suns truest Image, now in view. The Soul thus entring in the Mind, There such uncertainty doth find, That she to clearer Light applies Her aimes, and near the first Sun flies: She by his splendour beautious grows, By loving whom all Beauty flows Upon the Mind, Soul, World, and All Included in this spacious Ball.

IX.

BUt hold! Love stops the forward Course That me beyond my scope would force. Great Power! if any Soul appears Who not alone the blossoms wears, But of the rich Fruit is possest, Lend him thy Light, deny the rest.